Enberg can't wait to do it again

Dick Enberg prepared for the worst in his return to baseball. Instead, he was rewarded with something magical.

And now he can’t wait to do it again.

“I never even thought of not coming back” in 2011, Enberg said the other day.

He is, however, thinking about whether he wants to pursue any other broadcasting opportunities while also calling Padres games. This year, of course, he missed more than five weeks of baseball while he worked a pair of tennis tournaments, Wimbledon for ESPN and the U.S. Open for CBS.

“I really missed it. I really missed the games,” he said, noting how he followed the games on his iPad in the wee hours in London and New York. “As much as I was enjoying the tennis, I was missing the Padres.”

Enberg, 75, is under contract with Channel 4 San Diego for 2011. He also said he has a contract to work the Australian Open for ESPN in January, and he definitely will do that since it concludes before spring training. He said he has no deal right now to work Wimbledon and an “option either way” with CBS for the U.S. Open.

“From my point of view, it’s been so terrific for me that I’m going to have to wait until I spend a month or so after the season’s over to make sure that my head is clear. I’m making serious lifetime decisions based on how much I enjoyed this year. It’s been so fulfilling. … I’m already looking forward to next year.

“The whole experience has really surprised me. I never thought I’d even be ruminating over these possiblities. I’m seriously thinking about what do I want to do with the rest of my life. I know part of that answer is I want to continue to do baseball.”

Obviously Enberg’s enjoyment increased as the Padres went through a season he called “magical,” but he said the thrill would have been there regardless.

“We’re fortunate to be part of a terrific season, totally unexpected,” he said. “I braced like all of us that the pundits were right and we were 29th out of 30 teams.”

Of course, now the games mean more than ever and Enberg and Mark Grant will be on the sidelines again Saturday when Fox swoops in for the sixth straight week. (Chargers radio voice Josh Lewin will call the game.)

“We’ve gone through this whole season; we’re about to deliver this baby, and I’m going to sit up in the booth like a fan,” Enberg said. “That doesn’t feel very good. I want to do that game. I understand that; I’ve been on the other side as well.

“It just seems to me that when you get down to the final week of the season, shouldn’t local television be able to make the call? You can watch Fox in San Diego or you can watch us in San Diego. At least let us do the final series of the season! I’ll be watching that game, hopefully with a smile, but with tears coming down my cheeks.”

Radio daze

Next week is a big one in local sports radio, starting Monday when Jim Rome’s syndicated show shifts from XX Sports Radio to XTRA Sports 1360 and Chris Ello and Ben Higgins team up for a midday show (a change from the original plan to have Ello host by himself). So XTRA 1360 will have a weekday lineup of Dan Patrick at 6 a.m., Rome at 9 a.m., Ello and Higgins at noon, Josh Rosenberg and Charod Williams at 3 p.m. and Fox Sports Radio programming after 7 p.m.

XX Sports 1090 will counter with 15 hours of local programming, more than double XTRA’s seven hours. Scott Kaplan and Billy Ray Smith lead off at 6 a.m., with Lee Hamilton at 10 a.m. — meaning he goes head-to-head for two hours with Rome, his greatest impersonator — followed by Darren Smith (with Marty Caswell) at 2 p.m. and John Kentera at 6 p.m. ESPN Radio programming will go from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m.

Plus, San Diego 1700 will start carrying ESPN Radio programming when baseball’s playoffs begin Wednesday. The only downside is that the station is committed to financial shows from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the first game Wednesday and Thursday is tentatively set for noon. But it beats what we’ve heard from ESPN Radio the last month.

Flipping channels

•With the Chargers blacked out again Sunday, Fox loses its only chance to show a Chargers game this season. It also means we’re down to one game in the morning (Broncos-Titans on CBS, even though Ravens-Steelers is a better matchup), one in the afternoon (Redskins-Eagles on Fox) and one at night (Bears-Giants on NBC). Had there been no blackout, we also would have seen Panthers-Saints at 10 a.m.

•CBS is still showing its halftime NFL highlights in standard definition, even though it televises every game in HD. How is this possible? The NFL controls just about everything else with TV; can’t the league mandate CBS spend a few bucks and return viewers to the 21st century?

•Had to laugh when Kentera said on the Padres pregame show Thursday that he would refrain from a detailed discussion about Adrian Gonzalez’s comments to a Chicago reporter about playing for the Cubs because he didn’t want to distract from the Padres trying to get to the playoffs. Kentera does know that whatever he says can’t impact the game, right?